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Clinton Trades Jibes With North Korea

PHUKET, Thailand — The United States and North Korea fell into an acrimonious exchange on Thursday, with the North Korean government ridiculing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a “schoolgirl” and a “pensioner,” two days after she compared its leaders to unruly children.

At a meeting of Southeast Asian nations here, the war of words competed for attention with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign to marshal worldwide pressure on the North Koreans to dismantle their nuclear weapons program.

On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in North Korea issued a statement criticizing remarks Mrs. Clinton made this week to ABC News, in which she said the best response to North Korea’s behavior would be to ignore it, as one would a child clamoring for attention.

“We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady, as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community,” the North Korean statement said. “Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.”

The ill will surfaced vividly during a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, at this Thai resort when the North Korean delegation turned up on a hotel podium to deliver a scheduled statement.

The officials were told that Mrs. Clinton was due to speak soon, though she was running late, as she has often this week. After huddling, they stalked away and held a news conference nearby, at which they reiterated that North Korea would never return to multiparty talks with South Korea, Japan, Russia, China and the United States, talks that are aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with Pham Gia Khiem, a deputy prime minister of Vietnam, on Thursday as a meeting of Southeast Asian officials ended in Phuket, Thailand.Credit
Pool photo by Udo Weitz

“The international community’s response to North Korea’s actions has been unequivocal and nearly unanimous, leading to a new consensus,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference, during which she read a lengthy statement restating the American policy on North Korea.

Mrs. Clinton singled out China, an influential neighbor, for asking officials in Myanmar, formerly Burma, to help in dealing with the North Korean freighter, which was steaming toward Myanmar. The vessel, the Kang Nam 1, eventually turned around on its own, and she called China’s pressure a “proximate cause.”

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She said she would discuss further steps in pressing North Korea with senior Chinese officials during consultations with China next week in Washington. Mrs. Clinton is leading the strategic and economic dialogue jointly with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.

The United States has talked to China and other countries about a package of incentives, including economic and energy aid, which could be offered to North Korea in return for dismantling its nuclear program.

But even before Thursday’s vitriolic statements from North Korea, American officials said they were more focused for now on inflicting pain on North Korea than on luring it back to the bargaining table.

“We are not interested in half measures,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We have no desire to pursue protracted negotiations that will only lead us right back to where we have already been.”

Mrs. Clinton said the North Koreans had been intransigent in their public statements during the conference. Other senior American officials said the tone of the North’s statements was openly hostile.

Still, Mrs. Clinton may have contributed to the chilly atmosphere in her remarks just before the meeting. “Maybe it’s the mother in me,” she told ABC News, “the experience I’ve had with small children and teenagers and people who are demanding attention: don’t give it to them.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Clinton and North Korea Engage in Tense Exchange. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe